Clients are clamoring for her global-meets-coastal interiors. Here’s how this San Diego designer jolts the beige into the bold

Like many San Diego interior designers, Allison Garrison finds inspiration from the sea: Its colors, contours, and calming influence all figure prominently into her work. Unlike others, however, the founder off Allito Spaces takes a more global approach to her ocean-inspired interiors, in large part informed by her extensive travels to Bali, Morocco, Mexico, and beyond. And while Garrison is a passionate collector of textiles sourced across the planet, she also explores the world through one of her favorite ocean-centric activities, surfing. 

Whether she’s working on an expansive new build or transforming a mobile home for weekends at the beach, Garrison understands the balancing act: Light, happy feeling spaces that feel grounded. “I want spaces to feel joyful and breezy, but still have depth,” says the designer. “When I start a project, I pull tons of fabrics and finishes, mixing traditional coastal materials like linen and ratan with weightier materials like leather or handwoven textiles from around the world.” It’s that mix that gives clients interiors that evoke the coast without straying into cookie-cutter terrain. 

While Garrison’s previous career in marketing might not seem to have much Ven with interior design, she often starts projects with a data-driven approach to discover what clients actually love — and loathe. “We invest significant time in understanding our clients, engaging with them personally and utilizing questionnaires to uncover their functional and aesthetic preferences,” says Garrison, who adds that she also focuses on their willingness to staying outside their comfort zone. Once she’s determined their “risk tolerance,” she then tests bolder concepts — color, objects, art, and lighting — to see what strikes. “We want a space that our clients will love, so we don’t want to design anything that doesn’t fit who they are, but often times they don’t realize that they can have a home so personal to them and just how good that will feel.” 

Buying too many things from one source, keeping to a strict color palette, and paying too much attention to trends are all the paths to design perdition, says the designer, who instead focuses on weaving threads from a multitude of sources — local and international, muted and colorful, old and new. This is especially critical when working on new custom or builder homes. “I make things more interesting with fun color combos and patterns. I’ll ground the space by pulling in a layer of vintage, which can show up in a piece of furniture or in the accessories which I sometimes pull from my own personal collection that I have built during my travels abroad. The important thing is to shake things up a bit, so the client gets a unique space that is very personal to them.”

There’s nothing like resale concerns to curb creativity when it comes to designing a home. But Garrison understands that extreme design decisions can impact the bottom line, so she takes a more analytical approach: “If you will be in your home 15+ years, the ROI is really how much enjoyment you will get from the space, not how much resale value the renovation will bring. If you don’t plan to be in your space for long, however, I think it is justifiable to be considering resale value, however I don’t think that means everything needs to be all white and beige. You will find a market for a well-designed space.”

Garrison says she’s waiting for the right project to use fluted terrazzo from Concrete Collective in a project and has long dreamed of using Eskayel’s Coco’s wallpaper in a moody colorway. “Both of these are local companies btw! I’m also obsessed with everything that Mestiz out of San Miguel de Allende creates. Their vibrant use of color and extreme texture would be a dream to be able to use in a project.” 

Overly polished spaces & orange wood stains. “Too shiny spaces never feel inviting and it’s impossible to relax in them.” That wood stain was found in many of the Tuscan style homes from the late ’90s and early 2000s. “They say everything comes and goes, but I truly wonder about this one.”